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Letter to the editor: The issue is domestic violence

In Vermont, 56 percent of gun homicides are domestic violence related. And while abuse doesn’t always involve a gun, according to a study by National Institutes of Health, women are 500 percent more likely to die in domestic violence incidents that involve guns.

Letter to the editor: The issue is domestic violence

Signs urging for a “no” vote on Burlington ballot items #6, #7 and #8 popped up all over the city ahead of Town Meeting Day. All three measures passed.
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Aki Soga’s editorial on Feb. 23 about the March 4 ballot item on disarming suspected domestic abusers misses the point (“Where’s the due process?).

Mr. Soga spent a lot of time speculating on the deeper meaning of a typo and what household objects police gone crazy with power might seize at the scene of a domestic violence incident, while overlooking the well-documented facts of domestic violence in Vermont that make the proposed ordinance so important.

Mr. Soga worries about the overbroad term “weapons” in the proposal, but the requirement for police to demonstrate probable cause would limit any potential abuse of authority; and similar or stronger provisions have already been implemented without problem in 18 other states, including New Hampshire.

And while any long-term seizure, of course, must require a warrant or hearing, the imminent threat of violence after police leave the scene makes it essential for the police to be able to take the gun out of the equation.

Because, whatever a “weapon” can be defined as, this ordinance is about guns. In Vermont, 56 percent of gun homicides are domestic violence related. And while abuse doesn’t always involve a gun, according to a study by National Institutes of Health, women are 500 percent more likely to die in domestic violence incidents that involve guns.

Mr. Soga doesn’t need to look any further than his own paper (“’Tragic domestic situations’ define crime in 2013 in Vermont,” Jan. 14) to confirm that domestic abuse homicides in our state are an urgent issue. Giving police the authority to temporarily disarm domestic abusers will save women’s lives.